Archive for the ‘woodentoys’ Category
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Looks like the high end real estate market for dolls is beginning to rebound. I haven't seen an early 1950's Antonio Vital doll chalet like this on the market for a while, much less one that already has a big bid.
But then, this is a pretty incredible-looking example, what with the hand-carved roof, the hinge action [earlier models are all static]. And then there's the rather insane amount of Vitali-designed modernist furniture included with it. I'd say it has everything but the kitchen sink, but it has both the kitchen AND bathroom sinks. The only thing missing appears to be one drawer on one dresser. Hey, wait, mid-century Swiss woodworking consisted of just boring out a couple of overlapping holes? What are these drawers supposed to hold, M&M's?
VITALI Swiss Wood Dollhouse 1940-50 Creative Playthings, currently $99+25 s/h, auction ends May 30 [ebay]
Posted in antoniovitali, creativeplaythings, dollhouse, eBay, modernism, switzerland, toys, vintage, woodentoys | Comments Off
Monday, April 19th, 2010
After you get over the excitement of finding a vintage Prouvé children's desk--in this case, at the Swiss modern design shop Quintessentia--you can start thinking about who the ungrateful little rugrats were who beat this table down were. Or who the knuckleheads were who left it sitting, exposed, in the jardin or wherever all these years. And then you can thank them, too, because if it had been in any better shape, it'd be even more crazy-expensive than it already is.
So perhaps you can take the money you save on the desk and spend it on some vintage Naef toys; Quintessentia seems to have a pretty good local channel for sourcing awesome, old Swiss toys. There's a pretty huge herd of carved Antonio Vitali barnyard animals, for example.
Original Jean Prouvé Side Table [sic], $2,200 [quintessentia.com via dt reader arthur]
Posted in desk, furniture, jeanprouve, modernism, naef, switzerland, vintage, woodentoys | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
EAMES EAMES EAMES
HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE
BLOCKS BLOCKS BLOCKS D'oh!
House Industries makes it look so easy, but getting stackable awesomeness by mixing an icon of 20th century architecture with classic fonts turns out to be pretty damn hard.
Which is probably why no one has yet tried to turn the Eames House in to a puzzle made of 36 blocks, each of which is hand-silkscreened with architecture elements and various typefaces inspired by the Eames archive.
Eames Blocks will be $150 when they go on sale May 1, 2010 [houseind.com via their publicity guy]
Previously: Sweet, sweet Alexander Girard alphabet blocks by House
Posted in architecture, awesome, blocks, colabo, design, eames, handmade, publicists, toys, woodentoys | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
I'd like to think that given our ongoing fixation on colored grids and blocks, I might have posted about Grimm's Spiel und Holz Color Rally Blocks by now. But there we are.
Grimm's Spiel und Holz Color Rally Blocks, set of 73, $69.95 [thewoodenwagon.com via their twitter]
Posted in art, awesome, blocks, gerhardrichter, germany, grid, toys, woodentoys | Comments Off
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
Wow. In the Fall of 1971 Gilbert & George's Singing Sculpture was the debut show at Ileana Sonnabend's new gallery in SoHo. The pair stand on a table in suits and spotted metallic makeup and execute a precise series of mechano-robotic movements while an old-timey ode to British homelessness, "Under The Arches," plays on a tape deck. They do it all day without stopping. It's not performance art; they call it "living sculpture." I saw them present it in 1992 for Sonnabend's 20th anniversary.
For Tate Modern's big Gilbert & George retrospective in 2007, the museum's merchandise guru/designer Kit Grover came up with this incredible--did I say incredible? I mean incredibly awesome--little push toy.
Seeing as how we have a slight obsession around our house with artists as living sculpture, I wouldn't say this is a want. It's really more of a need, a desperate, desperate need.
Kit Grover's portfolio site [kitgrover.com via theselby via and a half]
Posted in London, Museums, art, awesome, k2, sculpture, toys, woodentoys | Comments Off
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Usually, a big set of Creative Playthings blocks like this comes out of a church basement preschool, and they're kind of gnawed on and gnarly. But these maple blocks look surprisingly clean and ready--to get gnawed on by your kid.
It's not scoring them yourself at a garage sale, but if a bidding war doesn't erupt, $99 shipped for 250 blocks seems like a pretty fair deal.
250 Wooden Blocks Creative Playthings Inc. Princeton NJ, opening bid $99 + free shipping, auction ends Apr. 5 [ebay]
Posted in blocks, creativeplaythings, eBay, toys, vintage, woodentoys | Comments Off
Monday, March 1st, 2010
Alright, now that I bought them, I can post about these incredible blocks designed by Ko Verzuu in the 1940s and made by ADO, the Dutch toy and furniture company run by and for the mentally disabled community.
Are they aresome? Or did I just think so because I was snowed in for a week, staring at Gerhard Richter color grids with the kid?
Slide puzzle by Ko Verzuu for ADO ca 1940s - SOLD [midmod-design.com via dt senior enabler andy]
Previously: 4900 Fuse Beads, after Gerhard Richter
Posted in ado, awesome, blocks, gerhardrichter, thedutch, toys, vintage, woodentoys | Comments Off
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Kids in the US get play kitchens. Kids in Germany get play sales kiosks. Which country has a childhood obesity problem and which one has already pulled out of the recession? That's what I thought.
Kaufladen by Hase-Weiss, EUR290 [haseweiss.de via baroque babies, thanks laura]
Posted in germany, playkitchen, retail, toys, woodentoys | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
From the twittering sound of things, I am the only dadblogger who didn't make it to Toy Fair 2010 this year. So I'll have to wait to see the Emerson, a new modernist dollhouse by brinca dada [that's day-duh, btw] in person somewhere after it comes out this spring.
My first impression was that it looked like some of the stone & glass houses by the late Hamptons modernist Norman Jaffe. [Actually, my first impression was that now kids will have a place to re-enact all the photos from Unhappy Hipsters. But then I realized you'd have to find some other hipster dolls; the articulated artist model/alien family brinca dada's putting out is too awesomely weird for Dwellian ennui.]
But looking through the press material, I see that Tim Boyle, the architect who designed Emerson, cites Neutra's Kaufman house and A. Quincy Jones's Gary Cooper house as inspirations. I also see that Boyle's co-founder Doug Rollins is a toy- and startup guy I used to know from church. And just like that, membership in the Mormon Modernist Mafia has doubled, from one to two.
Brinca dada says the Emerson will be $299 when it launches this spring. [brincadada.com via fanboy, thanks dt reader marjorie]
Posted in architecture, awesome, dollhouse, dwell, hipsters, modernism, parent company, toyfair2010, toys, woodentoys | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Wow, just because they don't have labels doesn't mean you can knock them off. The Museum of London is selling a London-in-a-Bag play set which is a straightup ripoff of Muji's original -in-a-Bag series of toys, which were created--in London!--by the design firm Industrial Facility.
Fake, tarted up London in a Bag, £12.99 [culturelabel.com]
Original, unpainted London in a Bag, £5.95 [muji.eu]
Posted in London, Museums, knockoffery, muji, toys, woodentoys | Comments Off